News of: Wednesday, 8th of August, 2012

Front Page

The market value of Standard Chartered Plc tumbled $16 billion on Tuesday after New York's bank regulator threatened to tear up its state banking license for allegedly hiding $250 billion in transactions tied to Iran.

The finance division has pointed out five major risks associated with Malaysia's proposed financing for the Padma bridge project, and said those concerns must be addressed if the proposal is to be accepted, according to a finance ministry official.

The Law Commission has recommended passing a law allowing appointment of legal experts from different professions as Supreme Court judges. The tradition so far has usually been for SC judges to be picked from among lawyers and lower court judges.

With only a week remaining before people will start heading towards villages to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with their families, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has failed to keep its promise to repair the busy Gulistan-Jatrabari road.

In an unprecedented letter, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has restricted the chairman of National Board of Revenue from making any important decision, as he did not comply with the minister's recommendation.

Indigenous people in Bangladesh could become extinct within the next few decades if their deprivation of rights continues as it had in the past, said CHT Regional Council Chairman Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma yesterday.

The Election Commission is planning to invite former chief election commissioners and election commissioners to a discussion on parliamentary and local government polls and electoral reforms, an incumbent election commissioner said yesterday.

Kuwaiti lawmakers boycotted a parliament session yesterday to foil another attempt to swear in a new cabinet - a move that makes the assembly's dissolution likely and throws the US ally into more turmoil.

Editorial

A report submitted by Planning and Development Unit of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) to the Education Ministry is a shocking eye-opener in quite a few ways. It unveils after three years of the creative method having been introduced at the secondary level of education that 30 percent of the teachers are unable to set question papers in the creative segments of the text books. Even this is a partial picture based on surveys of 4810 out of 18404 institutions. Which means absolute number of teachers unskilled in this particular area must be quite overwhelming.

In the backdrop of no less than two High Court (HC) directives to free up pavements this year, the walkways for pedestrians continue to remain occupied by vendors of all shades and colours. What has come as a bit of a shock is that the police authorities themselves have set up camp occupying a large portion of the road and pavement on Mirpur road near Chadni Chawk market, one of the busiest shopping hubs of the city.

Sports

On the podium Felix Sanchez cried and cried. As the national anthem of his beloved Dominican Republic rung out across the stadium speakers, Sanchez wept uncontrollably. Despite his gold medal, they hardly looked like tears of joy to anyone watching. It could yet become one of the most enduring images of London 2012.

Right-arm paceman Abu Jayed combined with left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed to give the Bangladesh Under-19s a convincing seven-wicket victory over Scotland in their first official warm-up match of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup at the University No 2 Oval in Brisbane yesterday.

When the professional league committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) was announcing the 'not-guilty' verdict in the prolonged match-fixing investigation into clubs Brothers Union and Rahmatganj MFS, a new and darker revelation emerged as Brothers Union manager Amer Khan declared on TV that he was forced to play a fixed match against eventual champions Abahani.

The two-and-a-half-month long investigation into the allegedly fixed match between Brothers Union and Rahmatganj MFS failed to find any incriminating evidence, it was revealed at a press conference at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) House yesterday.

One of the more poignant moments of Sunday's electric track-and-field lineup in the Olympic Stadium came in the semifinals of the 400 meters. Oscar Pistorius, who had managed to reach his goal and qualify for the semi-final, finished last. There were cheers for Pistorius though, from around the stadium. But more importantly, the young sprinter who had led the field came over to the South African and exchanged numbers.

The Bangladesh A team continued their poor batting on the tour of India as Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) XI tightened their grip on the four-day encounter on the second day of the Safi Darashah Invitational Tournament in Bangalore yesterday.

The High Court yesterday directed the state-owned telecom company to allow an Istanbul-based firm to participate in bidding for the construction of an optical fibre transmission network as per a purchase review panel's decision.

Australia will buy more products from Bangladesh as the Bangladeshi products are of good standards and prices are competitive, Greg Wilcock, Australia's new high commissioner to Bangladesh, said yesterday.

Turnout of shoppers at different malls in the port city is rising, as the biggest religious festival for Muslims, Eid-ul-Fitr, comes closer. People of all ages are seen thronging the malls even till midnight.

Metropolitan

Like the prime minister, the ministers and lawmakers should declare that they and their family members are not involved in any corruption, the chief of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said yesterday.

Criticising the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP, Nagorik Oikko Convenor Mahmudur Rahman Manna yesterday said the two major political parties only crave power and do not consider the welfare of the people.

Rabindratirtha, the second largest Tagore research centre outside Santiniketan, was inaugurated at New Town near Kolkata in the Indian state of Paschimbanga on the 71st death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore yesterday.

Fertiliser dealers across Chittagong division have decided to stop receiving fertiliser from different state-run factories in protest of alleged extortion by police and by some contractors of the factories.

Four alleged robbers were arrested from Comilla and Faridpur on Monday and early yesterday in connection with robbery at the house of a former ward councilor of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) in the capital's Kuril area on July 28.

A Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader was killed and his mother injured when a group of miscreants swooped on them at their residence in Kanchan area of Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj early yesterday.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members yesterday recovered 2,800 small packs of heroin worth Tk 38 lakh and arrested five drug peddlers including three women from Lauwai area of Dakkhin Surma Police Station of Sylhet yesterday afternoon.

Officer in-charge (OC) of Golapganj Model PS Emdadul Haque Sheikh was suspended on Monday, on charge of taking bribe from a colleague about nine months ago. The departmental action came after the allegation against him was found true during the primary investigation. A fax message, sent to Golapganj PS by higher authorities containing the temporary suspension order of OC Emdadul was received at the police station in the evening. The message said that the OC has been suspended temporarily and transferred to Khulna Range from Sylhet Range on charge of taking bribe from Constable Abdul Qayum.

Body of a young man was recovered from the Padma River in Sadar upazila on Monday. Police said Wahidul Hasan, 27, son of Wahab Fakir of Dewanpara under Goalanda Municipality was brutally murdered and dumped into the river. Family sources said Wahab went out of their house on Sunday night after hearing the death news of the mother of one of his friends over phone and did not return home. Locals said the body got entangled in a net while some fishermen were catching fish in the river at Urakanda at about 11am. On information, police recovered the body at about 3pm and sent it to Rajbari Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.

A minor girl who was kidnapped by criminals from her house in Nandigram municipality area on Monday for ransom was released on Tuesday morning. The four-year-old girl was daughter of the proprietor of Janata Jewelers in the upazila headquarters. Locals said, the abductors set her free on a payment of Tk 1.5 lakh as ransom at about 8am. Police said Al Mamun, son of Mozammel Hauqe of the area, and his accomplice abducted the girl on Monday morning. Later, Mamun demanded Tk 10 lakh from the parents over mobile phone to set the girl free.

An elderly man was murdered at Alokdia village in Kamarkhanda upazila on Monday night. Victim Tozammel Haque Mondal, 60, was son of late Azizul Haque Mondal of the village. Police said a gang attacked Tozammel while he was returning from local mosque after saying his Tarawi prayers at about 9pm, leaving him dead on the spot. As he did not return home at night, they looked for Tozammel. Later his body was recovered from under a bridge near the mosque.

Letters

Scarcity of hilsa fish in the local market has increased its price so high that it has become the food of the rich people in Bangladesh. The price has further increased in the month of Ramadan. Bangladesh Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) recently suggested that the government should impose a ban on white fish export in the month of Ramadan. People of Bangladesh have experienced that business communities can do anything for making high profit ignoring the interest of commoners. The Bangladesh government also responded promptly and issued an order banning the export of white fishes, which is unprecedented. Within a couple of days, the price of our national fish hilsa has come down. The commoners have finally got the chance of tasting hilsa. Thanks to FBCCI and the government.

We, the university students, are pursuing higher education without doing any research work. Without any research activities of applied science and pure science, we can not have quality education. Frankly, what we are studying at the university level in Bangladesh is totally backdated. Most of the lectures given by the course teachers were written in their student life. Moreover, our higher education is theory-based. The books we use are not updated with time. There are thousands of books in the university library but there are less than a hundred journals. Surely, it would be a good initiative if the authorities could collect more scientific journals for the students.

History will not remember how much salary Dr. Yunus earned after he turned 60. History will not remember how our Nobel laureate was pestered by the government. In fact, history will not bother about the kind of embarrassment this man had to go through. What history will remember is, how he developed the ability and power of the rural people, how the acts of one person changed the course of their lives. As a nation, we should be ashamed that we are silently watching Dr. Yunus being denounced. Of course, we have no power to do anything because we are living in the prison where the government is the warden, and we are shackled at the whims of our utility providers, inept officials and visionary 'patriots'. I often can't help but think, where are the courageous citizens of Bangladesh? Had they all died in the Independence War?

Bangladesh is in dire need of a 3rd political party. Each of our two major political parties have already shown wice what they can do in the last two decades which indicated that we should not keep faith on them anymore. Future of Bangladesh is not safe in their hands. People have already tested their capability and failed to draw any difference in their quality of governance.

A recent report of The Daily Star says that the capital's Monipur High School autrhorities were allegedly collecting money from the students in the name of Padma Bridge Project. According to the news, the guardians of the school expressed resentment over the unlawful act of the school authorities. The high-ups of the government said several times that no individual or institution is asked to collect money right now. Then why are the authorities ignoring the matter? Isn't this unlawful money collection tarnishing the image of both the school and the government? Who doesn't want to see the Padma bridge built? But not in such unlawful way. I hope the government will punish those who are involved in such crimes.

We do not know why Suranjit Sengupta is being called a 'minister without portfolio'. Should not the government give him a portfolio as he is so vocal on various important issues? We see him regularly speaking and sometimes more than other ministers and even more than Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The saying goes, "Raja joto boley, parishodgon boley tar shotogoon".

Our beloved writer Humayun Ahmed breathed his last in a New York hospital on July 19, after a prolonged fight against cancer. His untimely and abrupt demise came as a terrible shock to the entire nation. He had to stay in a foreign country and spend a big amount of money for the treatment of the deadly disease. During his last days, he expressed his desire to establish a cancer hospital in Bangladesh so that our people need not go outside the country for highly expensive cancer treatment. To materialise his dream, we can establish a cancer hospital in his memory. The hospital may be named as 'Humayun Ahmed Cancer Hospital' and established preferably at or near Nuhash Polli in Gazipur.

On 1st August I was amazed at how D. Jones highlighted the traffic situation in our country. Kudos to him for taking such interest in a mess that we have created. I am humbled by this man's effort (owing to the fact that he has actually taken the time emailing various organisations about the matter!). I have something positive that I want to let him know.

Every day I have to travel to the southern parts of Chittagong. The buses which we use are local buses-- rundown vehicles that somehow hurtle to the destination. As it is the rainy season it often rains in the morning. When it rains, the window at the front of the bus looks hazy. In most cases, the windshield wipers of the local buses do not work. As a result, we can hardly make out the vehicles that are coming from the opposite direction. How does the driver finds his way is a matter of speculation. Needless to say, riding in those buses isa risky business.

The Pakistan government has decided to file petitions in the supreme court seeking a review of the annulment of a new law aimed at preventing the premier's disqualification and another order on reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

India's ruling UPA candidate Hamid Ansari was elected as India's vice president for an unprecedented second successive term as he defeated BJP nominee Jaswant Singh by an emphatic margin in the elections held yesterday.

Egypt's army vowed Monday to "avenge" the killing of 16 troops by gunmen near the Israeli border and President Mohamed Morsi won US backing as he ordered his security forces to take full control of the Sinai.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti won a confidence vote yesterday on a bill to cut spending by an extra 4.5 billion euros (3.57 billion pounds) this year in order to rein in the deficit and delay a planned increase in sales tax.

Nrityanchal's much acclaimed dance drama “Rai-Krishna Padabali” will be staged at Mayapur, Krishnanagar of Paschimbanga, India on August 10. Organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) of Mayapur, the dance-drama will be staged at an international congregation of devotees marking 'Janmashtomi' (birth of Lord Sri Krishna). Every year, the international congregation is held at Mayapur.

The 71st death anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was observed here near the zero line of the India-Bangladesh border under Hakimpur upazila of Dinajpur on Tuesday morning with a vibrant cultural programme.

After the Liberation War-based production “Target Platoon”, National Theatre Repertory brings another play on the stage. The latest production is historic -- “Rudro Robi O Jallianwala Bagh”. The play premiered at the National Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, on August 5. Written by Manzur-e-Mawla, the play has been directed by Ataur Rahman.

OP-ED

Bangla-desh's villages need to be saved from development. There must be laws, those which civilised societies observe everywhere, that will ensure that no individual or group will mar the traditional structure of the village through steps that are a clear extension of lopsided urban planning. In simple words, the villages of Bangladesh, historically the underpinning of our heritage, a spur to its societal, philosophical and literary expression, must be preserved. And that can be done through keeping every negative developmental initiative at bay.

Time heals, but, regrettably, rather more so in proverbs than in politics. Time is rarely on the side of governments in desperate need of it. When the ship of state begins to leak, time, being a rascal, punctures a few extra holes in the hull. Any pragmatic captain knows that a limping ship must return to port or sink. But political captains tend to be counterintuitive. Loath to surrender control of the steering wheel, they head straight for icebergs in the hope that some miracle will save the crew and passengers.

During the past two decades, Bangladesh accepted and sheltered more than 300,000 Rohingya refugees, who not only stayed back but also put heavy economic and social burden on the world's most densely-populated nation.

The Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has taken a serious beating in recent days on just about all fronts, from the defections of military top brass and diplomats, to the assassination of at least three of the president's inner circle.

On October 31, 2011, with the birth of Oishee at 12:01 am in Bangladesh, UNFPA and government of Bangladesh celebrated the arrival of the 7 billionth global citizen on the planet earth. As of June 26, 2012 the world human population is estimated to be 7.022 billion by the United States Census Bureau, and over 7 billion by the United Nations. The population is expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion between the year 2040 and 2050. In fact, the world's population grows at a near-record pace, with a population equal to New York City's added every month, and equal to Germany's added every year.